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Learn how to engage employees, fuel business growth and drive positive social change through high-impact employee-led charitable giving and volunteering programs.en-usTue, 01 Aug 2017 15:07:33 GMT2017-08-01T15:07:33Zen-usA Fireside Chat with: Alexandre Mars, CEO and Founder of Epic Foundationhttps://www.causecast.com/blog/a-fireside-chat-with-alexandre-mars-ceo-and-founder-of-epic-foundation
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alexandre Mars is a serial entrepreneur and an engaged philanthropist. Over the last 15 years, he has successfully launched and sold several companies in Europe and North America across diverse business sectors, including venture capital, Internet, mobile marketing, social media and advertising. His two latest startups, Phonevalley (the world’s largest mobile agency) and ScrOOn (a social media management system) were sold to Publicis Groupe and Blackberry, respectively.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Mars.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=Mars.jpg" alt="Mars.jpg" width="640" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right;">Alexandre Mars is a serial entrepreneur and an engaged philanthropist. Over the last 15 years, he has successfully launched and sold several companies in Europe and North America across diverse business sectors, including venture capital, Internet, mobile marketing, social media and advertising. His two latest startups, Phonevalley (the world’s largest mobile agency) and ScrOOn (a social media management system) were sold to Publicis Groupe and Blackberry, respectively.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Understanding the demands of a new socially conscious generation, Mars created</span><a href="https://epic.foundation/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Epic Foundation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as a platform for donors to engage in their charity through technology, allowing them to select, monitor and experience their impact. Mars is injecting new momentum into the world of philanthropy by shattering outdated restrictions to the act of giving. By manipulating what has traditionally been consumer technology, he is giving donors a chance to see the reach of their donations, ultimately driving them towards a two-way relationship with their charity.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> <strong>How did you transition from business to philanthropy?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: I always knew I would use my success for good- it was embedded in me from a young age. In 2013, upon selling my last startup to Blackberry, my wife and I pulled our children out of school for nearly a year and travelled to over 13 countries, meeting with nonprofits and philanthropists around the world. The goal was to deepen our understanding of the philanthropic ecosystem and find out how we could get involved. I spent a great deal of time with NGO directors, </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/report-analyzes-corporate-philanthropy-on-a-global-scale"><span style="font-weight: 400;">philanthropist</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">s and social entrepreneurs identifying problems that the philanthropic market was facing and then finding ways to address those problems with effective solutions. I learned a great deal about the needs of donors as well as social organizations.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the one hand we had these incredible organizations and social entrepreneurs. They had innovative or proven ideas for how to change the lives of children and youth, but were struggling to access funding, expertise, and new networks. On the other hand, you had donors with lots of capacity, and big powerful networks, who want to do more but didn’t know where to start or who to trust. It was then that I realized I didn’t have to transition completely. I could build upon my 20+ years of experience as a tech entrepreneur to innovate the nonprofit space. In response, Epic was born. We launched in 2014 as a global nonprofit startup headquartered in NYC.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: &nbsp;How does Epic Foundation work?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: &nbsp;At Epic, we are disrupting the giving industry by proposing and providing new solutions that enhance how donors select, monitor and experience their impact. We are breaking down the barriers that restrict people from giving by providing a targeted answer to the issues of lack of time, knowledge and trust in nonprofit organizations that people typically face when giving.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To help them overcome these obstacles, Epic builds and manages a portfolio of rigorously vetted social organizations; tracks and monitors their social impact through a data platform; and keeps donors connected and engaged with the portfolio organizations through ongoing reporting of performance and accountability via a mobile application. And we do this free of cost for the donors: I’m funding Epic’s development and overhead costs myself.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: &nbsp;How can donors see the reach of their donations?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: &nbsp;Donors want to give to organizations that best utilize their contributions. So each year we go out looking for the world’s most impactful organizations, working to empower children and youth in order to connect them to our global network of philanthropists and corporations looking to give in a more strategic and engaged way.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">From there, it’s all about showing donors what their social investments are achieving. We do this in several ways, including monitoring reports twice a year. Our Impact App allows donors to track their social portfolio to provide a new level of transparency and speed to philanthropy. It’s one of the first attempts to create a two-way conversation around giving. You no longer send your money away in an envelope and wait until the end of the year to hear of its outcome. At your convenience, you have access to the numbers of meals served to youth in a homeless shelter in NY, or the number of vaccinations given to children preventing life threatening illnesses in Uganda. We connect their systems to our system, we render everything, we have a beautiful user interface and you’re able to track everything. It’s user friendly, and it’s impactful.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We also always encourage our donors to visit the organizations they support, but for those who can’t, we worked with a Hollywood award-winning producer to create a series of VR-based films around the work of each organization in our portfolio. Donors can put on a headset and immediately transport themselves into a setting of abject poverty. Yet, they also receive a quick glimpse into the work of the organization they support. The films are really engaging and we’ve received great feedback from viewers.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: &nbsp;What advice do you have for companies that want to integrate social impact into their business objectives?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: &nbsp;First off- just do it. Get involved! There’s a whole wave of socially conscious consumers and potential employees coming to make sure that you do, so it’s better to get ahead.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More importantly, this is a question we’ve been working to answer for quite some time at Epic which is why we launched a series of solutions for companies, employers, entrepreneurs, etc. to integrate a social impact component into their business models. From taking our “Founders Pledge” (which commits entrepreneurs to give away a part of their profit to charity upon exiting their company) to instituting payroll giving so that employees can pursue purpose and profit at work, there are so many ways to make your social impact component painless and authentic. And it enables everyone at all levels of industry with the right tools to make a real difference.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A great example to look up to is Christian Dior Couture. In partnership with Epic, they just announced their new payroll giving initiative to their 1,000+ employees. Not only was it an easy absorption on Dior’s part, but it’s a great tool for their employees to turn leftover change at the end of their paychecks into support for their favorite cause.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: &nbsp;What trends are you seeing in CSR right now?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: &nbsp;I think the most obvious is that employees are starting to urge employers to do more. </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-brave-new-world-of-csr-ai-and-predictive-people-analytics"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CSR</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> isn’t enough. It was a great initiative 10-15 years ago, but then we started seeing companies incorporate CSR strategies as a marketing ploy. People can see through this. We live in a world driven by tech which means that news spreads like wildfire. If employees don’t think your strategies are authentic, if they don’t think it’s enough, the internet will know.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why we’re such a big proponent on authentic giving strategies. They’re systemic and easy-to-absorb, yet engaging and powerful when you think of their potential for impact when multiplied. It’s a modernized version of CSR, with a pure intention - just give.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: What is an easy way to make an impact that companies aren’t doing enough of?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: Companies have done a poor job of </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employee-engagement-vs.-employee-experience"><span style="font-weight: 400;">engaging their employees</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in their impact. Again, that’s been the shortcoming of CSR. It’s a one-sided approach with a result you only see through a paper report. And it’s not to say that the objective isn’t there- it’s not to say that having some kind of social component is a bad thing- but we’re beyond that.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CSR was a great demonstration of a company’s responsibility to society when it first appeared, but now people are ready to do more. If more companies recognized that their employees are no longer interested in employer-provided health care but making a difference in the world, if they created a way to channel their energy into purpose alongside profit, I think we’d all be better off.</span></p>
<p><strong>Q: What are you excited about right now?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A: The </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/whats-so-wrong-about-giving-away-45-billion">social disruption</a>&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">- a new slew of young, socially conscious individuals that want to make a difference and with their mission in mind, will disrupt all aspects of society. Every structure is ripe for the changes they will bring, not just industry.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In my family, I’ve witnessed firsthand the desire for my daughter to donate her earnings from the Tooth Fairy at just six years old. I know I wasn’t thinking about charity with the $2 I found under my pillow when I was her age. They will account for 50% of the workforce by 2020 so we’re only beginning to see their influence.</span></p>
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<p><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/you-need-these-elements-to-build-an-irresistible-company-culture">You Need These Elements to Build an Irresistible Company Culture</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives">Collaboration, Not Competition, Is the Best Hope to Save 20 Million Lives</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact">Dropbox Connects its Culture to Bottom Line Impact</a></h3>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fa-fireside-chat-with-alexandre-mars-ceo-and-founder-of-epic-foundation&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:37:48 GMTkatharine@causecast.org (Katharine Bierce)https://www.causecast.com/blog/a-fireside-chat-with-alexandre-mars-ceo-and-founder-of-epic-foundation2017-07-27T18:37:48ZYou Need These Elements to Build an Irresistible Company Culturehttps://www.causecast.com/blog/you-need-these-elements-to-build-an-irresistible-company-culture
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/you-need-these-elements-to-build-an-irresistible-company-culture" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/Weiner%202.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="You Need These Elements to Build an Irresistible Company Culture" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On a recent cross-country flight, I was pleased to see that the in-flight entertainment included a fireside chat with Jeff Weiner, CEO of </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">LinkedIn</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weiner is a CEO I greatly admire for his authenticity, clear communication and the fact that he values mindfulness and </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives"><span style="font-weight: 400;">compassion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in the workplace. So I was excited to hear more about what LinkedIn is doing to create an </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/7-true-stories-of-irresistible-employee-volunteeris"><span style="font-weight: 400;">irresistible place to work</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> where people learn and thrive. &nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Weiner%202.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=420&amp;name=Weiner%202.jpg" alt="Weiner 2.jpg" style="width: 420px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="" width="420">On a recent cross-country flight, I was pleased to see that the in-flight entertainment included a fireside chat with Jeff Weiner, CEO of </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">LinkedIn</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weiner is a CEO I greatly admire for his authenticity, clear communication and the fact that he values mindfulness and </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives"><span style="font-weight: 400;">compassion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in the workplace. So I was excited to hear more about what LinkedIn is doing to create an </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/7-true-stories-of-irresistible-employee-volunteeris"><span style="font-weight: 400;">irresistible place to work</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> where people learn and thrive. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weiner’s perspective is that </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/the-company-you-keep-ebook-better-retention-through-culture"><span style="font-weight: 400;">building a strong company culture</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> comes down to three main components</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Authentic Leadership</em></li>
</ul>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Authentic leadership</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> means the company leaders make decisions based on the values of the company culture. It means that the CEO can get asked, “What’s our culture?” and answer the question both in words, and by example. Employees start rolling their eyes when they hear about company culture if they don’t believe the leaders actually mean it. Leading by example is critical because it means that C-level executives will get called out if they don’t embody the principles of the company. &nbsp;</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Company Values</em></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To create a great culture, you have to be clear about what matters. This is where </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">values </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">come in. It’s important to note that culture and values are not the same thing. Values are part of the culture. &nbsp;More specifically, values are the operating principles upon which a company’s leadership make day-to-day decisions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Make sure you codify your values and that leaders are using these values to make decisions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If the company doesn’t have a codified culture, employees and managers will manifest whatever culture they’ve learned in the past and are coming in with,” Weiner explains. “You want to make sure the leadership that’s setting up new offices in different locations are good cultural actors. Because, if that’s not the case, they will set up the office with their own culture and where the want to take the company, and that’s a very good way of leading to a bad outcome.”</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Aspiration</em></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The third aspect of creating great culture is </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">aspirational.</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> It’s important to have a sense of what kind of company you aspire to be, because it “gives the company permission to not necessarily constantly be doing everything that it ultimately wants to do,” as Weiner puts it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Without having an aspirational component, employees quickly become cynical when they see a gap between the company vision and reality. &nbsp;Factoring in aspiration means that people know that the company is headed in the right direction, so they are more inclined to be patient and understanding when the company isn’t 100% perfect at living up to its values.</span></p>
<p><strong>The Common Characteristics of Top Leaders</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weiner believes that thriving cultures require outstanding leaders, and he feels that all top-notch leaders have three characteristics.</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Top leaders are coaches</em></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you’re at a 15-person startup, everyone needs to be able to get stuff done fast. So, startups default to the skill set of “get it done quickly.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As you hire people and grow to a 50 or 100 person company, they see you, one of the founders, as a leader, and they come to you for advice. If you help them solve their problem once, that’s only once - they’ll still keep coming to you for help. But if you coach them on how they can problem-solve, that’s much better. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most advanced coaches realize that they can coach others to coach their teams. That’s how you get to scale. It’s the difference between giving someone a fish, teaching them to fish, and teaching them how to teach others to fish. &nbsp;After all, in order to grow a company to scale, you need to grow the leadership team around you.</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Top leaders carve out time for being proactive and strategic</em></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is important but difficult, because it requires time. Checking off a giant to-do list is something teams get good at as they are achieving success. &nbsp;But it’s hard to lead if you can’t think proactively; if you’re constantly reacting or fighting fires, or playing catch-up to competitors, you’ll always feel like you’re behind. It’s important to “carve out cycles” - such as 90 minutes a day - to “catch your breath, connect the dots, and synthesize.” &nbsp;</span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Top leaders inspire people to “act like an owner”</em></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most successful companies are where individual employees talk about challenges the company faces as “we” and not “the company.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As soon as you start to not think like a victim, and instead think like someone who can influence the outcomes, that’s who you become,” Weiner notes. The victim mentality unfortunately often takes root at large companies where employees feel that their opinions don’t matter because it’s someone else’s job to fix a problem.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Acting like an owner means that employees are empowered to voice their suggestions and that there is a way for the company to respond to feedback. When everyone at the company sees the company as a “we” and not a “they,” people can express frustration and share solutions, and then they’ll work to make those solutions happen.</span></p>
<p><strong>Bringing out the Best in Top Employees</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While managers tell people what to do, leaders inspire them to make good decisions. This comes back to authentic leadership - it’s important for leaders to embody the values they espouse because most people are very good BS detectors. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More specifically, great leaders find alignment between what employees want to accomplish and what they want employees to accomplish, and explain why it’s such a strong fit. Weiner encourages managers to let employees have autonomy and purpose, and develop mastery along the way. &nbsp;Let employees leverage their intelligence, passion, compassion, resourcefulness and show them how their strengths can create value on a global basis; now </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">that’s</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> inspiring. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>Orienting Around a Sense of Purpose</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s noteworthy that LinkedIn hosts monthly </span><a href="https://www.inc.com/steve-cadigan/when-culture-became-our-competitive-advantage.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">InDays</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, where teams come together for activities that often include volunteering together. So managers make a practice of bringing in a sense of social purpose to the company on a regular basis, which I’m sure impacts LinkedIn’s culture in a positive way. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It also makes sense that LinkedIn is committed to social impact because one of the words Weiner kept mentioning in his fireside chat was “compassion.” Weiner recognizes that despite the fact that humans by default are egocentric - we see the world through our own lens - he sees the value of people who recognize others’ perspectives. &nbsp;That sensibility makes for a great culture, and a great company. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong>Sign up for our free webinar on&nbsp;July 27th at 11am PT / 2pm ET</strong></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em>"Corporate Activist Employees: Your New CSR Team"</em></strong></span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Register for the Webinar" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd.png"></a></em></strong></span></p>
<p><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives">Collaboration, Not Competition, Is the Best Hope to Save 20 Million Lives</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact">Dropbox Connects its Culture to Bottom Line Impact</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving">What Nonprofits Want Companies to Know About Giving</a></h3>
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<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fyou-need-these-elements-to-build-an-irresistible-company-culture&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Tue, 25 Jul 2017 22:41:35 GMTkatharine@causecast.org (Katharine Bierce)https://www.causecast.com/blog/you-need-these-elements-to-build-an-irresistible-company-culture2017-07-25T22:41:35ZCollaboration, Not Competition, Is the Best Hope to Save 20 Million Liveshttps://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/Global-Emergency-Response-Coalition-Somalia-800x533-1.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="Global-Emergency-Response-Coalition-Somalia-800x533-1.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With so many social issues competing for the philanthropy attention of companies and individuals, how can nonprofits successfully break through the noise to draw attention to their missions? What can activists do to galvanize urgent momentum around the issues they care about?</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Global-Emergency-Response-Coalition-Somalia-800x533-1.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=Global-Emergency-Response-Coalition-Somalia-800x533-1.jpg" alt="Global-Emergency-Response-Coalition-Somalia-800x533-1.jpg" width="640" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;">With so many social issues competing for the philanthropy attention of companies and individuals, how can nonprofits successfully break through the noise to draw attention to their missions? What can activists do to galvanize urgent momentum around the issues they care about?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a word: collaborate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In recent years, </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/topic/social-innovation" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">social innovation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has led to a dramatic increase in collaboration as a path to more successfully address entrenched social issues. Amongst social entrepreneurs, nonprofit directors, </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/report-analyzes-corporate-philanthropy-on-a-global-scale" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">corporate philanthropy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> leaders and others working at the nexus of technology, investment, philanthropy, international development, and business, collaboration across different companies, industries and countries is disrupting the traditional way that we address challenges and catalyze solutions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, an unprecedented U.S. partnership is forcing the country to pay closer attention to an age-old plight that has become an acute global crisis: hunger. The </span><a href="https://www.globalemergencyresponse.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Global Emergency Response Coalition</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a lifesaving humanitarian alliance that is racing to address what the United Nations is calling the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, which is nevertheless not receiving the attention that it desperately deserves.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At this moment, 20 million people in countries like Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria are facing the threat of starvation and famine, including nearly 1.4 million children who are severely malnourished and at risk of death without immediate help. In Yemen alone, the lack of food and basic resources is so dire that a child under five dies every 10 minutes.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Disease outbreak, sectarian conflicts and drought have only worsened the complexity of a grave crisis that Scott Paul, Senior humanitarian policy advisor for Oxfam, calls “unprecedented.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The International Rescue Committee is calling this human catastrophe “likely the least reported but most important major issue of our time,” and has found through its own polling that 85 percent of Americans are largely uninformed about the food shortages. </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Washington Post</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> reports that </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">that only 43 percent of the $6.27 billion needed to head off famine this year has been raised globally.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s hard to break through on any of these things,” observes Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yet the consequences of inaction or insufficient aid are unbearable. In the 2011 hunger crisis, 258,000 people died in Somalia alone when the international community failed to act in time. More than half of these deaths were children. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why eight of the world’s largest U.S.-based international aid organizations have taken the extraordinary step of joining together to demand more attention and support for this crisis. The organizations - including </span><a href="http://www.care.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">CARE</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">International Medical Corps</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.rescue.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">International Rescue Committee</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.mercycorps.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mercy Corps</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.oxfam.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oxfam</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://plan-international.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plan International</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Save the Children</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and </span><a href="https://www.worldvision.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">World Vision</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> - have just launched a twelve day campaign - from July 17th to July 28th - to spur greater fundraising amongst corporations and individuals.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Already, several companies have stepped up to help, with BlackRock and PepsiCo each offering a $1 million matching gift for a total potential of $2 million each. Each of the Alliance partners will share equally in the funds raised to be used for aid in the ten African and Middle Eastern nations most affected by this crisis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The long-term nature of the humanitarian emergencies facing the world today - with civil wars in places like Syria leading to refugee crises of unimaginable magnitude, on top of food shortages and disease outbreak that are in some cases exacerbated by climate change - has led to donor exhaustion and overwhelm.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this environment, collaboration amongst organizations that would otherwise be competing for the same donor dollars is probably the only way to seize the spotlight and be heard.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Global Emergency Response Coalition needs your promotional and financial support. Find out more through their </span><a href="https://www.globalemergencyresponse.org" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">website</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about how your company can promote the opportunity to your employees, customers and communities or by donating in-kind advertising space. GERC can customize a plan for how to leverage your communications channels and tailor outreach to your audiences. Partners that provide promotional support will receive the same recognition as financial supporters.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With this hunger crisis and so many other urgent issues of our time, partnerships and innovation have never been more important, when globalization has brought us all closer together while also creating new complexities and obstacles. Collaboration has become essential to impact, and companies that join in the Global Emergency Response Coalition can <a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employee-engagement-quotes-that-remind-you-why" class="">engage employees</a> through a critical collaboration that represents historic life-saving work. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong>Sign up for our free webinar on&nbsp;July 27th at 11am PT / 2pm ET</strong></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em>"Corporate Activist Employees: Your New CSR Team"</em></strong></span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Register for the Webinar" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd.png"></a></em></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong>Also read:</strong></span></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact">Dropbox Connects its Culture to Bottom Line Impact</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving">What Nonprofits Want Companies to Know About Giving</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it">About Optimizely’s Outstanding Company Culture and How They Did It</a></h3>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fcollaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Thu, 20 Jul 2017 19:29:02 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/collaboration-not-competition-is-the-best-hope-to-save-20-million-lives2017-07-20T19:29:02ZDropbox Connects its Culture to Bottom Line Impacthttps://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/11407064_10204271402602097_4299607185793737517_n.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="11407064_10204271402602097_4299607185793737517_n.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dropbox isn’t interested in lip service. It wants citizen philanthropists. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why the company has applied considerable energy and resources towards </span><a href="/blog/community-impact-is-the-hottest-fashion-for-employee-engagement"><span style="font-weight: 400;">community impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in ways that can be embraced by all of its employees. The company’s&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Dropbox for Good” program - with chapters in 13 global offices - has donated $1 million collectively in </span><a href="/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving" style="background-color: transparent;"><span>employee donations</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, donated 8,900 provisioned licenses to nonprofits, and logged more than 4,000 hours of volunteer time over the past three years.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/11407064_10204271402602097_4299607185793737517_n.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=11407064_10204271402602097_4299607185793737517_n.jpg" alt="Dropbox Employees Volunteering" width="640" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" title="Dropbox Employees Volunteering">Dropbox isn’t interested in lip service. It wants citizen philanthropists. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why the company has applied considerable energy and resources towards </span><a href="/blog/community-impact-is-the-hottest-fashion-for-employee-engagement"><span style="font-weight: 400;">community impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in ways that can be embraced by all of its employees. The company’s&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Dropbox for Good” program - with chapters in 13 global offices - has donated $1 million collectively in </span><a href="/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving" style="background-color: transparent;"><span>employee donations</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, donated 8,900 provisioned licenses to nonprofits, and logged more than 4,000 hours of volunteer time over the past three years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joe Wheeler, Social Impact Manager of Dropbox, believes that these accomplishments reflect the values which drive Dropbox. With 500 million people using Dropbox to store their most valuable information, one of the company’s core values is “be worthy of trust.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wheeler is a self described optimist with a personal disposition to want to say yes to everything. “A lot of people in </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">CSR</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> feel that way,” he says. “They’re passionate, idealistic changemakers.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He believes that successful CSR programs have targeted goals and detailed metrics for how they’re measuring their impact. At Dropbox, that means connecting the company’s overall CSR initiatives to the goals of the company across every department.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The focus on values translates into many aspects of the business,” says Wheeler. Evaluating progress on its product, quarterly goals, hiring process - all of these steps incorporate a “we, not I” relationship to the world. “Our values help shape the work that we do,” says Wheeler.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For Wheeler, that means questioning how the programs they’re setting up with Dropbox for Good reflect an example of living the company’s values, in the office and outside. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>Making an impact through intrinsic motivation</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As part of the company’s citizenship philanthropy model, employees are given four paid volunteer days per year to pursue the causes they’re passionate about. Dropbox provides resources and builds strong community partnerships so that there are ways for employees to plug into the larger Dropbox initiatives. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, in its Bay Area office, D</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">ropbox is a </span><a href="https://sfciti.org/circle-the-schools/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Circle the Schools</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> corporate partner and has been awarded the </span><a href="http://sfedfund.org/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">San Francisco Education Fund</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">’s </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">2015-16 Distinguished Service Award for its work helping local high school students with college and career mentorship. Dropbox wants to smooth the path for kids of all backgrounds to build careers in technology. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For any kid who’s interested in technology, there should be as many ways to break in as possible,” explains Wheeler.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Towards that end, Dropbox and </span><a href="https://mhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mission High School</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are co-creating a Maker studio in the city’s Mission District, an extracurricular space filled with laptops and coding and design software for students to learn technology skills and for teachers to have the freedom to use the space in whatever way they deem best. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>Leveraging CSR to support your business</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wheeler wants to align Dropbox’s CSR initiatives with what other parts of the company are engaged in and align volunteer opportunities with other departmental priorities. For example, Dropbox’s Hack Week - held twice per year - allows people to pursue creative projects outside of their normal job roles. Sometimes, people create new product apps, other times they use Hack Week towards socially conscious efforts that fit into Dropbox for Good. Oftentimes, the result ends up becoming part of the product.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s a big effort,” says Wheeler. “Teams across every part of the company should be working towards the same goal, in unison, across issues like equity, diversity, inclusion and social impact.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an effort to support women in technology, Dropbox has a partnership with </span><a href="http://technovationchallenge.org/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Technovation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, an entrepreneurship nonprofit for young women. Their mission involves middle and high school girls identifying social impact problems that they care about and then creating app ideas to address them. Mentors from companies like Dropbox help the girls with all aspects of their app, including the rollout, and then different teams from all over the world compete each year for seed funding for their idea.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wheeler is always looking at the next horizon of growth for Dropbox for Good to keep the program evolving, making it even more focused and communicating more internally and externally to drive more impact.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The goal is to keep inspiring and motivating our employees and even other companies to push the envelope on giving back,” says Wheeler.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong>Sign up for our free webinar on&nbsp;July 27th at 11am PT / 2pm ET</strong></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em>"Corporate Activist Employees: Your New CSR Team"</em></strong></span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong><em><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Register for the Webinar" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd.png"></a></em></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong>Also read:</strong></span></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving">What Nonprofits Want Companies to Know About Giving</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it">About Optimizely’s Outstanding Company Culture and How They Did It</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/no-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why">No, Your Company Can't Avoid Politics. Here's Why.</a></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fdropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Tue, 18 Jul 2017 20:18:34 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/dropbox-connects-its-culture-to-bottom-line-impact2017-07-18T20:18:34ZWhat Nonprofits Want Companies to Know About Givinghttps://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/givingprograms.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="givingprograms.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/how-to-start-a-corporate-giving-program" class=""><span>Corporate giving programs</span></a>
<span> are an increasingly central part of </span>
<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/new-trends-on-public-trust-reveal-opportunities-for-corporate-social-impact" class=""><span>social impact</span></a>
<span> efforts by businesses across the world. Employees want to give back, and companies are making that ever easier with tools like automatic payroll deductions, matching gifts and crowdfunding campaigns. Modern approaches have made donating more convenient for employees, which spurs greater spikes in overall giving.</span>
<br>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But what works best for nonprofits? We asked leaders at several top nonprofits - </span><a href="https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">International Medical Corps</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.feedingamerica.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Feeding America</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Save the Children</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.unicef.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">UNICEF</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.charities.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">America's Charities</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to list the top three things that they wish </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">donors knew about how they could be more impactful with getting more money to nonprofits faster. Here’s what we heard:</span></p><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/how-to-start-a-corporate-giving-program" class=""><span><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/givingprograms.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=givingprograms.jpg" alt="givingprograms.jpg" width="640" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="">Corporate giving programs</span></a>
<span> are an increasingly central part of </span>
<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/new-trends-on-public-trust-reveal-opportunities-for-corporate-social-impact" class=""><span>social impact</span></a>
<span> efforts by businesses across the world. Employees want to give back, and companies are making that ever easier with tools like automatic payroll deductions, matching gifts and crowdfunding campaigns. Modern approaches have made donating more convenient for employees, which spurs greater spikes in overall giving.</span>
<br>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But what works best for nonprofits? We asked leaders at several top nonprofits - </span><a href="https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">International Medical Corps</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.feedingamerica.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Feeding America</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">Save the Children</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.unicef.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">UNICEF</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.charities.org/" class=""><span style="font-weight: 400;">America's Charities</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to list the top three things that they wish </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">donors knew about how they could be more impactful with getting more money to nonprofits faster. Here’s what we heard:</span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><strong>Year-round donations</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, e.g., payroll deduction or monthly giving, are desired and provide consistent support.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Providing </span><strong>complete donor contact data</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is key to relationship building and stewardship.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Giving via a </span><strong>platform that is user-friendly for both donor and nonprofit</strong></li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Let’s be clear: how you give matters.</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most direct and cost-efficient route that donations take from giver to recipient is the goal. “No matter how you donate, nonprofits always incur a cost for processing donations, recording donor information, preparing tax receipts, and other administrative costs,” said Jim Starr, President and CEO, America’s Charities. “But some donation methods cost nonprofits more than others.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Starr notes that workplace giving sometimes costs as low as 4% of the donation, often covered by companies so that 100% of an employee’s donation goes to charity, making it one of the most cost-efficient ways to support nonprofits. On top of that, companies often offer to match employee donations, allowing donors to double the charity’s impact. Compare that to credit card, PayPal, and check donations, which usually cost between 15-30% of a donation, or gifts made through a charity’s fundraising event, which costs nearly </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">50% (!)</span></i></p>
<p><strong>The form of your gift matters, too.</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most nonprofits prefer an unrestricted donation that empowers them to direct funds where they’re needed most. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Unrestricted funds means we will have the ability to respond quickly when disasters strike; meet new needs in chaotic environments; or innovate programs to meet the local context,” says Erica L. Tavares, Senior Director, Institutional Advancement, International Medical Corps. “Unrestricted funds also allow us to leverage larger, institutional funding that often requires a match – and in fact, for every unrestricted dollar International Medical Corps receives, we can unlock, on average, $30 in funding and donated medicines and supplies.”</span></p>
<p><strong>The timing of your donation also matters.</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But ultimately, giving in any capacity - and giving consistently - is the name of the game.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Whether donations arrive by check, electronic fund transfer or gifts of stock, the format is less important than the consistent support from our donor partners,” says Ashby Brown, Manager, Employee Engagement at Save the Children. “Recurring donations (rather than one-time gifts) are particularly helpful because it means we can focus our efforts providing assistance where it is needed most around the world, rather than spending time on fundraising.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many nonprofits must wait until the end of year or for episodic events to receive a large share of their donations. But “workplace giving provides reliable funding year-round,” says Starr. “This allows charities to plan how to use donors’ gifts more strategically and make a stronger impact."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Teresa Gruber, Manager of Employee Engagement, at Feeding America agrees that timeliness of receiving donations makes a difference. “For Feeding America, having the donations right away mean that we have funds to support food donations and program implementation at our network of food banks. We are able to help people more quickly.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Recurring donations also allows for a deeper relationship with a nonprofit that allows givers to be tuned in to impact. “It means donors will respond quickly with us when a disaster does strike, so that our doctors and nurses have the resources and tools they need to save lives when they arrive on the frontlines,” says Tavares.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tavares believes that a strong relationship with donors helps them understand how International Medical Corps works and how that work makes an impact on survivors of disasters and underserved communities worldwide. “When donors give to International Medical Corps, they are making an investment in the success of our programs. We believe in turn, they deserve clear, concise communications about what their donations, pooled with other funds, have accomplished.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gruber agrees that the ease of pulling information from online platforms and having access to donor data can help connect donors to impact. “We want to share communications with the donor and steward them so they know how their investment is making a difference in assisting those who struggle with hunger,” says Gruber.</span></p>
<p><strong>Open up all methods for giving</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">No</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> matter how you get there, nonprofits really want one thing from your giving program: your money. The sooner they have it, the faster they can get to impact.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The concerns and priorities of nonprofits when it comes to giving is why <a href="https://www.causecast.com" class="">Causecast</a> has made every form of giving accessible and instant for the companies it serves through its online giving and volunteer platform. We offer more frequent processing options, don’t make nonprofits have to register with our system, have no hidden fees, and we </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">write checks for nonprofits on behalf of companies so that nonprofits don’t have to wait to receive funds.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ultimately, when managing a giving program, you need to ensure that your donor dollars get where they need to go as fast and as regularly as possible so that you can have more impact in less time. Flexibility, speed and consistency are what helps nonprofits most and best supports them to serve their missions.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Sign up for our free webinar on&nbsp;July 27th at 11am PT / 2pm ET</span></strong></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"Corporate Activist Employees: Your New CSR Team"</span></em></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Register for the Webinar" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd.png"></a></span></p>
<p><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it">About Optimizely’s Outstanding Company Culture and How They Did It</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/no-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why">No, Your Company Can't Avoid Politics. Here's Why.</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/check-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea">Check Out This Creative New Fundraising Idea</a></h3>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:02:36 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/what-nonprofits-want-companies-to-know-about-giving2017-07-13T19:02:36ZAbout Optimizely’s Outstanding Company Culture and How They Did Ithttps://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/start-up-team.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="About Optimizely’s Outstanding Company Culture and How They Did It" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/start-up-team.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=start-up-team.jpg" alt="start-up-team.jpg" width="640" class="" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;"></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Employees want to work for companies that care. &nbsp;According to the 2016 Cone Communications Employee Engagement Study, 58% of employees consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leading companies know that creating a great company culture should include a top-notch employee giving and volunteering program. &nbsp;For an example, let’s look at </span><a href="http://www.optimizely.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Optimizely</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which has a strong culture of caring about its community and employees. &nbsp;This is one reason that the company has been recognized by the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">San Francisco Business Times </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area from 2014 through 2016.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Causecast client Optimizely has outstanding employee participation in their giving and volunteering programs, which is a part of their culture. While employee volunteering and giving rates typically average in the 25% to 40% range, </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/case-study-optimizely-how-do-you-build-a-culture-of-giving-back?utm_campaign=How%20Do%20You%20Build%20a%20Culture%20of%20Giving%20Back-Optimizely%20Case%20Study&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Optimizely recently achieved 51% employee giving and 85% participation in volunteer programs</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><strong>Optimizely’s Company Culture</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Optimizely describes itself as the world’s leading experimentation platform, enabling businesses to deliver continuous experimentation and personalization across websites, mobile apps and connected devices. The company is a mid-stage start-up, founded in 2009, and has a strong culture of giving back.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senior Program Manager John Leonard explains why the company feels a particular responsibility to give back even at a relatively early stage in the company’s development. “As a technology company in San Francisco,” he notes, “we’re really at the center of an unprecedented concentration of wealth, knowledge, innovation and talent. And we’re also in a place where there is a huge homeless problem. There are big, real challenges in education, the environment, and other issues that are all around us.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>How Cultures Grow</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are so many reasons that a culture of giving back benefits the corporate “giver” as much as the recipient charities. Top employees - especially </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/5-ways-to-engage-millennial-employees-through-cause"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Millennials</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> - are increasingly drawn to workplaces that foster a greater sense of purpose. It’s become a non-negotiable component of the modern employee’s job search.</span></p>
<p><strong>Optimizely’s Social Impact Program</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Over time, Optimizely created three different campaigns, each one building upon the next. Leonard knew that the Optimizely employees were extremely busy - but the Causecast platform made it easy for employees to volunteer and give back.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The results were impressive. Optimizely tripled the average contribution to its annual giving campaign over the prior year, and total funds raised increased sevenfold. Half of all donors chose payroll deduction and 25% made recurring contributions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leonard ensured that the platform offered something for everyone, with international organizations and local nonprofits alike. As a result, the campaign served as a great tool for connecting far-flung offices together for a common cause. The company more than doubled employee participation over the prior year (21% to 51%) and accomplished this with no company match. All this with 83% of Optimizely’s employees being </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/5-ways-to-engage-millennial-employees-through-cause"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Millennials</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> who are relatively new to philanthropy.</span></p>
<p><strong>Social Engagement and Employee Engagement</strong><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Optimizely offered carefully planned events, more employees participated in each event.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When they see so many of their peers volunteering and talking about it, when senior executives are volunteering and endorsing the experience, it feeds on itself,” says Leonard. “The more people volunteer, the more it becomes second nature, “ Leonard notes. “It becomes an expectation.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As giving back has become more of a norm for Optimizely, the company has seen this reflected in the feedback it receives from employees. A survey that the company organized last December yielded a surprising number of responses around the social impact focus of the company, with </span><strong>70% of employees saying that these efforts made them feel more proud of their company.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> One employee commented: “I’m so proud of Optimizely's commitment to helping others. So much so, </span><strong>it's the first thing I talk about when friends and family ask ‘How's the job?’"</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leonard believes that Optimizely’s </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/case-study-optimizely-how-do-you-build-a-culture-of-giving-back?utm_campaign=How%20Do%20You%20Build%20a%20Culture%20of%20Giving%20Back-Optimizely%20Case%20Study&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog"><span style="font-weight: 400;">burgeoning culture of social impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> helps attract the best employees and also the ones that will fit into its desired culture. “We want to attract employees who have a passion for a lot of different things,” he notes. A new employee recently told Leonard that he had multiple job offers, but joined Optimizely specifically because of the opportunities to give back to the community. “We think that this culture helps retain employees, too.”</span></p>
<p><strong>To learn the 3 factors behind the primary drivers of Optimizely’s success, strategies they used to engage employees, and how social impact ties in to their business strategy, </strong><a href="https://www.causecast.com/case-study-optimizely-how-do-you-build-a-culture-of-giving-back?utm_campaign=How%20Do%20You%20Build%20a%20Culture%20of%20Giving%20Back-Optimizely%20Case%20Study&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog" class=""><strong>download the full case study here.</strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=b8da32a8-2fcd-4298-870c-cc8b9ebad25c&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Get the Case Study" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/b8da32a8-2fcd-4298-870c-cc8b9ebad25c.png"></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen">Volunteer Participation Doesn't Just Happen</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now">The One-Word Secret to Increasing Volunteer Participation Right Now</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employees-love-working-from-home.-but-are-they-engaged">Employees Love Working from Home. But Are They Engaged?</a></h3>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fabout-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">employee volunteeringemployee engagementcorporate volunteerismcompany culturevolunteeringemployee givingTue, 11 Jul 2017 17:20:00 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/about-optimizelys-outstanding-company-culture-and-how-they-did-it2017-07-11T17:20:00ZNo, Your Company Can't Avoid Politics. Here's Why.https://www.causecast.com/blog/no-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/no-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/flag.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="flag.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can CEOs avoid taking a stand on social impact issues </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">that are considered “political”</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">? These days, that’s a tall order. We live in particularly divisive times, and many social issues across the spectrum have become tagged as political.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/flag.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=flag.jpg" alt="flag.jpg" width="640" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="">Can CEOs avoid taking a stand on social impact issues </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">that are considered “political”</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">? These days, that’s a tall order. We live in particularly divisive times, and many social issues across the spectrum have become tagged as political.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once upon a time, much of Corporate America did everything possible to avoid taking a hard stand on social issues. Doing so only invited scrutiny and alienation - why go there? Today the answer to that question</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> should </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">seem obvious: no matter where your political allegiances may lie, ignoring the social and environmental issues of our time can leave business leaders burned.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an article for </span><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3067982/how-to-navigate-your-company-through-a-time-of-political-turmoil"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Fast Company</span></i></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> writer Michael Grothaus posed this dilemma to crisis management and company image experts. Here were some of the reactions that Grothaus uncovered:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Companies (and their CEOs) must stand on </strong><strong><i>principles</i></strong><strong>, not politics. </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Any response that a company or executive makes relating to current events should be grounded in the values that a company provides to society, and should be used as an opportunity to communicate those values to employees and customers,” Micho Spring, chair of </span><a href="http://www.webershandwick.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weber Shandwick’s</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Global Corporate Practice, told Grothaus. Company leaders should only respond if their values are directly related. But when they are, they must act fast, as 85% of global consumers say that how a company responds to issues and crises is an important factor in their opinion of the organization overall.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Think about your employees. </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Employees expect CEOs to look out for them, they want to work for values-based companies, and they expect their leaders to stand up for them based on principle. “Culture has become central to the ability of an organization to attract and retain employees and customers,” Spring noted. “Companies that are seen as being on the wrong side of social issues today run the risk more than ever of losing the war for talent and facing significant consumer backlash. Particularly in today’s environment, companies must put culture and values at the center of their risk mitigation strategies.” &nbsp;</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Prepare to get ahead of the curve.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> During these particularly contentious times, company leaders must expect the unexpected and plan accordingly. Don Baer, worldwide chair and CEO of Burson-Marsteller, told Grothaus that it all comes down to thinking ahead and having plans in place. “Early interaction combined with accurate and effective messages and smart uses of various communications channels can often diffuse a situation before it becomes a problem,” Baer notes. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But despite the increasing evidence that silence can be its own loud statement, there are still plenty of corporate ostriches who would prefer to keep their heads in the sand, leaving CSR leaders, HR managers, and corporate activist employees frustrated.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How frustrated? </span><a href="http://www.povaddo.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Povaddo</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> recently sought to find this out through a soon-to-be-released survey of attitudes across Corporate America about social engagement. Their fascinating findings should serve as a wake-up call for any CEO who thinks she can sit on the sidelines without alienating her employees.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Only 1 in 3 employees feel their CEO has his or her finger on the pulse of employee attitudes towards important societal issues</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">57% of employees feel that Corporate America needs to play a more active role in addressing societal issues</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">45% of employees feel that it’s more important to speak out on a social issue even if it has negative repercussions for the company</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">27% want to put pressure on their CEO to be more public</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15% identify as dedicated activists</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This means that a giant mass of your employees aren’t satisfied with how your leadership is stepping up to the important issues of our time. Those employees can be considered at risk of leaving for a company that has a more assertive and confident leadership style which better reflects their values and priorities.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Think about that for a moment. Could the prospect of a great deal of talent walking out the door change the equation for how your CEO evaluates social involvement? &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lest CEOs tremble at the thought of wading into the “swamp” of social or environmental issues, Povaddo’s findings reveal that most headline issues of the day are actually far less controversial than one might think. </span><strong>Over 60% of social issues which were tested enjoy clear majority and bipartisan support from employees;</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> this includes topics ranging from race relations and renewable energy to equal opportunity in the workplace and paid family leave.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How do employees want their CEO to voice public support for social issues? Povaddo uncovered several approaches as the most popular:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Introduce new company policies or operations to support the issue</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rally support amongst the company’s employees via internal communications</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Make donations to groups aligned with the company’s positions</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Make public statements via the press and social media </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oppose government policies that go against the company’s positions</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Engage in issue-advertising or cause related marketing</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pursue litigation on issues and/or policies that go against the company’s positions</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a time when CEOs and other business leaders are being asked to be more empathetic and responsive - and forget about “playing it safe” since those days are long over - they desperately need an updated handbook for how to get in front of the curve of social issues. No matter where your beliefs may lie, Povaddo’s eye-opening research clearly demonstrates the clear benefit of action (and cost of inaction) for every business leader.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why Causecast is pleased to join Povaddo in presenting a webinar &nbsp;- on July 27th at 11am PT/ 2pm ET - that gives business leaders the information and tools they need to inspire corporate activist employees as enthusiastic stakeholders. Join us for an enlightening conversation about the important new data that you can use to empower your CSR team and stay competitive through social impact.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><strong style="color: #112c4c; font-size: 19px;">Corporate Activist Employees: Your New CSR Team</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">July 27 - 11 am PT / 2 pm ET</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a class="cta_button" href="https://cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/ci/?pg=895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd&amp;pid=154453&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic="><img class="hs-cta-img " style="border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; " alt="Register for the Webinar" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/154453/895d7ae9-5c5f-4b7b-bda0-61bbe13cb6cd.png"></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/check-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea">Check Out This Creative New Fundraising Idea</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen">Volunteer Participation Doesn't Just Happen</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now">The One-Word Secret to Increasing Volunteer Participation Right Now</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fno-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Fri, 07 Jul 2017 00:39:48 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/no-your-company-cant-avoid-politics.-heres-why2017-07-07T00:39:48ZCheck Out This Creative New Fundraising Ideahttps://www.causecast.com/blog/check-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/check-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/internet-tv-RyanCouldrey.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="internet-tv-RyanCouldrey.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Corporate giving programs are an effective and popular way to connect your employees to causes while making a real </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/effective-social-impact-has-never-been-more-important"><span style="font-weight: 400;">social impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. But creativity is key to participation, and too many campaigns lack the pizzazz and tools needed to grab anyone’s attention.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/internet-tv-RyanCouldrey.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=584&amp;height=329&amp;name=internet-tv-RyanCouldrey.jpg" alt="internet-tv-RyanCouldrey.jpg" width="584" height="329" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="">Corporate giving programs are an effective and popular way to connect your employees to causes while making a real </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/effective-social-impact-has-never-been-more-important"><span style="font-weight: 400;">social impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. But creativity is key to participation, and too many campaigns lack the pizzazz and tools needed to grab anyone’s attention.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First, if you’re serious about creating a vibrant </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/how-to-start-a-corporate-giving-program"><span style="font-weight: 400;">employee giving program</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, make sure you’re offering resources to make this easy. Automatic payroll deductions, some kind of matching program, and real-time reporting streamline the process of managing and participating in these programs (that’s where a volunteer and giving platform like</span> <a href="https://www.causecast.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Causecast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">’s makes all the difference.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With the right tools in place, you’re poised for launch. But you need the spark of creativity to really take off, by capturing the hearts and minds of would-be donors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s the position that PBS recently found itself in as the prestigious nonprofit assessed a new landscape where funding for the arts is at risk. So PBS decided to host a charity telethon for itself in an online streaming marathon of the classic children’s favorite, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, creating an innovative and modern </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/crowdfunding-mister-rogers-neighborhood"><span style="font-weight: 400;">crowdfunding campaign</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> with the help of partners. </span><a href="https://tiltify.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tiltify</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> led the charge of bringing together causes with streaming and online games; </span><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Twitch</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> offered its popular live streaming space to host the campaign; and Causecast</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> through its Causecast Foundation, handled all of the donation processing to 157 local PBS affiliates across the country.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you haven’t heard of Tiltify, you might want to take a closer look. It’s a platform that creates opportunities for livestreaming to be directed towards charity. (Full disclosure: I'm a shareholder.) Tiltify is ground zero for innovative </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/3-fundraising-ideas-for-corporate-giving"><span style="font-weight: 400;">fundraising ideas</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, seamlessly integrating with streaming hubs like Twitch and allowing gamers and other viewers to donate live. But what makes this modern telethon so different is that users can interact with each other and celebrities in ways that were never possible in the days of Jerry Lewis. Technology allows users to see their names pop up onscreen as soon as they donate, chat with other viewers, get instantaneous feedback, and affect what is happening on the stream through their participation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Tiltify empowers gamers and makes giving back more of the norm,” notes Founder Michael Wasserman. “Gaming is a $20 billion industry in the U.S. alone. If just 2 percent of that was redirected towards charity, it would offer a staggering boost to good causes around the world.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our viewing habits are far more fractured than they once were and it’s impossible to recapture the audience share of the three network universe of yore. But there are still places where legions of people gather at the same time and can be directed towards philanthropy. Click on </span><a href="http://www.twitch.tv/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Twitch</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> or </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">YouTube</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and you’ll find millions of users who are livestreaming video games and eSports events, as broadcasters or viewers. Last year, 100 million users watched 16 billion minutes of broadcasts per month on Twitch from 1.5 million unique broadcasters. </span><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3027452/how-twitch-hooked-45-million-viewers-to-watch-13-billion-minutes-of-gaming-a-month"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some reports</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> list Twitch as the fourth highest-trafficked site in the U.S., behind only Google, Netflix and Apple, sharing more data than other video streamers like Hulu and Amazon. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With some streamers having their own followings of millions, the possibilities for serious fundraising are immense. For the celebrities who get involved, the casual, low-tech experience is an attractive diversion from the grandeur and hoopla of a formal fundraiser. For the streaming viewers, these stream-a-thons are often surprising, giving the audience a rewarding opportunity to see celebrities and influencers in a more intimate and interactive light. For the streaming broadcasters, a livestreaming fundraiser can cast a wider and more positive light on their shows, helping to spread the word about their streams. And for nonprofits, this added channel of fundraising offers an exciting new path towards awareness and engagement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We think this is the future of fundraising,” says Wasserman. “Think of the possibilities. Think about how you can help with disaster relief in a more immediate and resonant way. You can now broadcast very easily from a lot of these areas, people can see what’s going on and be inspired, and people see the changes going forward. You can actually create a conversation and answer questions about what you’re doing to help, all while showing things that are happening live.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For PBS’ campaign, a livestream marathon round of 886 episodes of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">worked like a charm, coaxing viewers to donate to PBS throughout each episode. The result: over 7 million online viewers contributed a total of $42,145 in just 18 days. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This type of multimedia crowdfunding approach is a unique way for nonprofits to engage a broad base of supporters, in this case both the older generations who fondly remembered Mr. Rogers as well as Millennials, who prefer to use modern donation platforms.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One key to successful fundraisers is bringing out what’s most unique about the cause or nonprofit and then engaging donors through that special sauce. PBS had a coveted library of a classic children’s television show; the nonprofit or cause around your desired giving campaign has something else to offer.</span></p>
<p><span>Tiltify is eager to engage the nonprofit community and show them the possibilities, building a new stream of donors </span><span>with nothing more than a laptop. Companies interested in creating a livestream fundraiser as part of a giving campaign will find that this is an excellent way to get employees excited about giving and make a real difference for their favorite nonprofit partners.</span></p>
<p><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen">Volunteer Participation Doesn't Just Happen</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now">The One-Word Secret to Increasing Volunteer Participation Right Now</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employees-love-working-from-home.-but-are-they-engaged">Employees Love Working from Home. But Are They Engaged?</a></h3>
<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fcheck-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:37:48 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/check-out-this-creative-new-fundraising-idea2017-07-05T20:37:48ZVolunteer Participation Doesn't Just Happenhttps://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/volunteer%20participation.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="volunteer participation.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With HR and CSR leaders increasingly aware that strong corporate volunteer and giving programs are an essential part of a positive employee experience, the&nbsp; question on everyone’s minds is: but how can I get employees to actually participate?</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/volunteer%20participation.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=640&amp;name=volunteer%20participation.jpg" alt="volunteer participation.jpg" style="width: 640px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="" width="640">With HR and CSR leaders increasingly aware that strong corporate volunteer and giving programs are an essential part of a positive employee experience, the&nbsp; question on everyone’s minds is: but how can I get employees to actually participate?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Corey Diamond, COO of volunteer consultant firm </span><a href="http://www.realizedworth.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Realized Worth</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, believes the answer may seem contradictory: focus </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">less</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now"><span style="font-weight: 400;">volunteer participation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">more</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on the volunteer experience.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Too often, volunteer opportunities are created and executed with a “check-the-box” mentality. Overworked, under-resourced managers are doing the best they can just to get something - &nbsp;</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">anything</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> - organized. Fortunately, modern tools - such as </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/shopping-for-a-volunteer-and-giving-platform-heres-why-it-matters"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Causecast’s volunteer and giving solutions</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> - make the process of managing campaigns easier and more efficient than ever before.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But a powerful and sustaining volunteer program doesn’t just come from ease of use.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’re big believers in the idea that experience leads,” says Diamond. “If people have a great experience, that’s the first step. From that, comes a deeper involvement with the nonprofit and hopefully a donation.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What this means is that waiting until the fall to ask employees to donate to your holiday giving campaign is not the best way to maximize engagement. Instead, the challenge is to create a long-term relationship between your company and a nonprofit, where you can establish goals, benchmarks, and a demonstration of impact over time. Then find ways to connect your employees to that effort so that they can have an experience of personally making an impact.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the best of worlds, this focus on experience leads to a more meaningful connection with nonprofit partners that translates to higher participation rates, more donations, and an </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/how-a-culture-of-giving-back-inspires-something-better-than-engagement"><span style="font-weight: 400;">enriched corporate culture</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that further fuels the employee impetus to give back.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Increasingly, corporate foundations are linking their giving to the broader company effort around a nonprofit. “Companies don’t want to just hand out grants,” Diamond has found. “They want a clear snapshot of how they’re impacting the community through grants AND employee volunteering AND giving. All of this becomes a seamless experience to support the individual participating; employees know that the company is backing their efforts with a big check, and they feel that they’re part of something much bigger.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Placing a greater focus on the employee volunteer experience &nbsp;- as a pathway to increasing participation - doesn’t have to be onerous. As a matter of fact, the best way to do this is by turning to an asset that too few companies are leveraging, but should be: employee volunteer leads.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Companies that engage in best practices around volunteer programs delegate high-level volunteer “champions” as team organizers who can help lead programs and rally enthusiasm. Ideally these champions are linked through a volunteer council that is centrally organized by the CSR team but has the autonomy to localize the particulars of their events.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These champions can be given leadership training and be set free to become key influencers and leaders around their volunteer program. Champions later report back about how the program and campaigns are being received, ensuring that employees are given the opportunity to participate in ways that truly interest them, so that they develop a real connection to the nonprofit and to your program as a whole.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The volunteer experience is being viewed as part of an employee’s compensation package, all of which encompasses the total employee exprience. Volunteering checks off a lot of boxes around connection, purpose and meaning, so it’s crucial that managers fine-tune the program in ways that motivate employees to participate and get them feeling that the company is fostering their best selves.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are seeing more and more activity in this area because the HR industry is more enlightened and thinking in this way,” Diamond notes. “Companies are taking a proactive, not reactive, approach to HR these days.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A lot of companies reach out to Realized Worth to ask about benchmarking. “They want to know what other people are doing to see how their own programs hold up,” says Diamond.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nothing wrong with that, and a “keeping up with the Joneses" mentality is understandable, but Realized Worth leaders would rather approach this issue from the perspective of “what do my employees actually want?”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you deepen the employee volunteer experience through a more comprehensive relationship with a nonprofit and cause over time, you pave the way for a better employee experience in general. From that, you’ll find that all the goodies that your company hopes to get from its volunteer and giving program - greater participation, impact, retention, recruitment, and engagement - flow more easily and validate your investment in this area. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>Also read:</strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employees-love-working-from-home.-but-are-they-engaged">Employees Love Working from Home. But Are They Engaged?</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/is-charity-dead">Is Charity Dead?</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/stats-you-need-to-know-about-employee-donation-matching-programs">Stats You Need to Know about Employee Donation Matching Programs</a></h3>
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<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fvolunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:05:36 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/volunteer-participation-doesnt-just-happen2017-06-29T20:05:36ZThe One-Word Secret to Increasing Volunteer Participation Right Nowhttps://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now
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<a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now" title="" class="hs-featured-image-link"> <img src="https://www.causecast.com/hubfs/sunglasses.jpg?t=1502296685460" alt="sunglasses.jpg" class="hs-featured-image" style="width:auto !important; max-width:50%; float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;"> </a>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CSR managers are always bemoaning the challenges of elevating participation in their </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/build-it-or-buy-it-tools-for-the-success-of-your-volunteer-program"><span style="font-weight: 400;">volunteer and giving programs</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and for good reason. Average participation rates for these programs are low, and that has a lot to do with the limited resources and attention that’s dedicated to most corporate volunteer and giving programs. Getting your busy employees away from their desks and focused on something other than work can be more daunting than you think, even though most employees express an avid desire to give back at work.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://www.causecast.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sunglasses.jpg?t=1502296685460&amp;width=320&amp;name=sunglasses.jpg" alt="sunglasses.jpg" width="320" style="width: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" class="">CSR managers are always bemoaning the challenges of elevating participation in their </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/build-it-or-buy-it-tools-for-the-success-of-your-volunteer-program"><span style="font-weight: 400;">volunteer and giving programs</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and for good reason. Average participation rates for these programs are low, and that has a lot to do with the limited resources and attention that’s dedicated to most corporate volunteer and giving programs. Getting your busy employees away from their desks and focused on something other than work can be more daunting than you think, even though most employees express an avid desire to give back at work.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are many different angles to consider when it comes to increasing volunteer participation, but one of them simply involves getting more creative. Your employees can sense when you’re going through the motions of creating volunteer opportunities and just checking the box to get this task off of your plate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Apply a little more imagination to your volunteer dynamic at work. Put yourself in the mindset of your employees and think about what’s going on in their lives that would make volunteering irresistible at this exact moment in their lives.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And what’s going on right now that can offer a gateway to new ideas? One word: summer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a time when employers find there’s a </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">20 percent drop in workplace productivity, according to a Captivate Network study. Projects take 13 percent longer to complete and workers become 45 percent more distracted.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> So how can you turn these engagement lemons into lemonade tasty enough to sell at a stand?</span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Get outside. &nbsp;</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your employees are itching to escape from their cubicles and catch some rays. Whatever you’ve got on the </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-brave-new-world-of-csr-ai-and-predictive-people-analytics"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CSR</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> agenda for the next few months, move it outdoors, if at all possible. Volunteer opportunities, fundraisers, discussions about your CSR strategy, prep talks and debriefs around volunteering events….whatever it is, try to mix it up and get out of the office. Opportunities to clean up or garden in a public park are often a good idea to get desk-bound employees to enjoy the sunshine - and build teamwork. Plus, ice cream cones never hurt. Just saying.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Make it a family affair.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Capitalize on summer downtime by inviting families to participate in some of your volunteer opportunities. Including families in your social impact efforts is an outstanding way to bolster company pride, help employees feel a greater sense of work-life balance, and get them motivated to participate. &nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Blue sky it.</strong><span> Put down your pencils and take a step back to look at community impact through a different lens. Organize a day of big-picture thinking - yes, ideally outside - where employees break up into teams to strategize on how your company’s unique value proposition or the distinct talents of employees could be leveraged for good. For tech companies, </span><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/bid/141447/Reinventing-Corporate-Citizenship-Through-Hacktivism"><span>hackathons</span></a><span> have become popular ways to develop sustainable solutions to societal issues. What is your company’s core competency? Identify your organization’s secret sauce and host a day where your employees use what they know best to solve a real-world problem. Make a picnic out of it, and you’ve got all the ingredients for your employees to feel valued, heard and engaged.</span><span></span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Voluntourism for vacationers. &nbsp;</strong><span>The field of voluntourism is exploding, but your interested employees don’t need to volunteer through voluntourism agencies that target the masses. They can do so through your corporate volunteering program, so long as you have geographically diverse nonprofit partners that offer far-flung opportunities, whether domestic or abroad. Let your employees know that if they want to make their vacations more meaningful and mix in some good works along the way, you’ll do your best to source opportunities that make sense for them and your company. Then later they can report back about “What I Did Over the Summer,” complete with photos, on your online volunteering platform.</span><span></span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Let the games begin. </strong><span>A summer-long donation drive can be just what your company needs to rally around one cause. And making it a crowdfunding competition can be a gateway to do-gooder good times. For example, you can raise funds for a local school and then wrap it all into an end of summer event, like a trip to an amusement park where your employees spend the day with the kids they helped. That way they see the benefit of their efforts and can keep their morale as high as the summer temperatures all season long. Just make sure that there’s also a special prize attached to the winner of the crowdfunder - like the opportunity to push the CEO into a pool at a wrap party BBQ. Nothing keeps the competitive juices flowing like a tantalizing prize that’s priceless in value and abundant in bragging rights.</span><span></span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Love your Mother. </strong><span>Earth, that is. With everyone enjoying the outdoors more, increased appreciation for nature is in the air. There’s many ways that organizations can help the environment, but creating a sustainability activity with a clear goal in mind can be the best way to encourage action and unite your team. Starting a drive to recycle old electronics, for example, adds an end goal while focusing attention around one cause. Take that a step further by creating incentives for carpooling or biking to work, with a company-wide prize for reaching agreed-upon goals, and your employees will be clamoring to work together so they can win together.</span></li>
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<p><span style="background-color: transparent;">Summertime casts a new light (literally) on outdoors volunteering activities that can get your employees enthusiastic, recharged, and plugged into your program in ways that can last far after the summer sun has set.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="background-color: transparent;">Also read:</span></strong></p>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/employees-love-working-from-home.-but-are-they-engaged">Employees Love Working from Home. But Are They Engaged?</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/is-charity-dead">Is Charity Dead?</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.causecast.com/blog/how-a-culture-of-giving-back-inspires-something-better-than-engagement">How a Culture of Giving Back Inspires Something Better than Engagement</a></h3>
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<img src="http://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=154453&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causecast.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.causecast.com%252Fblog&amp;bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; ">Tue, 27 Jun 2017 23:02:42 GMTryan@causecast.org (Ryan Scott)https://www.causecast.com/blog/the-one-word-secret-to-increasing-volunteer-participation-right-now2017-06-27T23:02:42Z